In our lifetimes

All the pollution on the planet has happened in our lifetimes, folks. It’s our fault. Though there was a lot of carbon pollution and the like for the last several thousand years, the explosion in plastics and chemical manufacturing has happened since World Wars I and II. We are living in a cesspool of chemicals.

When I first was diagnosed with cancer I was ashamed. I thought I hadn’t been organic enough, had allowed myself to be subjected to too many carcinogens, somehow. Had not lived pure enough. That it was my fault. I hid away in my house and endured Chemotherapy alone for six months. I had a 40% chance to live.

And then I watched the meanness and brainlessness of the election, before and after, and saw all hope of a slow path towards environmental sanity evaporate into thin air. And I realized… why should I (or anyone for that matter) have to live a life completely removed from society in order to stay well????

Why do we accept carcinogens as a norm?

There was an excuse before the 60’s. It was great fun to be prosperous and to have all the cheap goods that we want. We were clueless back then, just having a good time. But then came Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” and people who were paying attention woke up and started trying to clean up the environment and make a sane world for human beings to live in. What the hell happened to everyone else!

Why have you agreed to the policies that have poisoned me? Why have you poisoned my daughter?

It’s been over fifty years folks – and we have apparently gotten nowhere. In the 2016 election a minority of voters proved once again that they are the dups of big business. You are all walking around right now scratching your balls and saying stuff like “I’m against big government – I’m worried about my guns – I heard that Hillary Clinton was corrupt” But you’ve voted this way for half a century! What the hell is wrong with you?

Do you all have any idea how many people have cancer? It’s not normal, it’s not good. Do you know how many people have diabetes, heart disease, digestive disorders, high blood pressure?… all diseases caused by our poisoned food supply, gasoline-spewn air, and chemical-laden water. And you remain brainwashed by pundits selling trickle down economics.

You believe in conservative values but you don’t believe in conserving the very planet on which we live?

If you have been voting Republican your whole life this is your fault. Democrats are not a whole lot better – but that’s a different story. Democrats are at fault because of their ineffectiveness. Democrats at least acknowledge the problem, but are powerless against the same big business oligarchy that has everyone brainwashed. But if you’ve been voting Republican, and wasting your braincells “thinking” about politics through the skewed eyes of ignorance and prejudice – then it is your fault.

We have all the skills and knowledge to make a beautiful, clean and healthy world. Cleanness is not anti-business – it is smart business – it is moral business. It’s the Christian thing to do. It’s the Buddhist thing to do. It’s the Islamic thing to do. Homes can be clean. Water can be clean. Transportation can be clean. Businesses can thrive and prosper in a clean environment. We can have fun, exciting, productive lives by learning as we go how to best live on the planet. This shouldn’t even be a discussion.

There is no reason whatsoever that I should have cancer – except that we can’t have a decent science-based discussion in politics. It’s because you, I say YOU, allow yourself to be fooled and then turn around and voted, viciously, from your ignorance. You think it’s funny, but I sit every day in the chemo and radiation lines with the people who are suffering from your neglect. There is this certain “deer in the headlights” look in everyone’s eyes.

There is no reason that I should have to hide from the food, water and air in the “best country in the world” in order to be healthy. There is no reason that we can’t clean ourselves up. Cleanliness is next to Godliness… remember that? It applies to us all, to the way we live, to the decisions we make together.

It’s going to happen to you, sooner than you think. As you sit there with the chemo lines dripping into your veins think about how we all live together. Is this really what we want? We are not powerless against it – though we certainly feel powerless against each other. Today, my fellow community members, we are powerless against each other’s ignorance.

Remember… all the pollution on the planet has happened in our lifetime. In our lifetime!!! That’s us, people. That’s us.

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